What Brianna Bitton learned from sharing an apartment with undiagnosed PCOS

O Positiv started when a sister tracking painful cycles compared notes with her brother in the same Los Angeles apartment. Brianna Bitton lived with draining periods and later linked them to PCOS, Bobby Bitton brought startup habits, and their first response was FLO, later followed by URO and MENO, all built around listed inputs and independent lot checks.

The origin was domestic before it was commercial, with Brianna Bitton and Bobby Bitton as roommates in Los Angeles trading observations about care gaps.

Brianna had trained as a Disney Imagineer and worked as an interior designer for high profile clients, while living through severe menstrual pain that cost her working hours. Bobby had studied entrepreneurship and spent early years inside young companies. In 2018 Brianna proposed FLO, a gummy aimed at PMS, and the pair spent years on tasting panels, lab work and calls with physicians and researchers before releasing it direct to consumer as the opening product under O Positiv.

The line has since widened. FLO stayed as the entry product, joined by URO for vaginal health and MENO for menopause, while the company counted above 1.3 million customers and 24 products by 2023, alongside 3.2 million dollars in funding and a Target rollout set for that December. The public goal stayed constant, to back women from first period to long after the last.

For Half Life the useful question is pharmacologic. Which form is present, at what amount, how much reaches circulation, how long it remains, and whether the study cited on the pack used that same amount in people. Every batch is said to face third party review for purity and potency, formulas are called OB/GYN formulated, and URO probiotics cite a studied strain with no artificial colors or flavors. That paper trail, from strain deposit and farm lot to capsule count and pack claim, is what we pressed on.

With 24 products and above 1.3 million customers reported by 2023, plus 3.2 million dollars raised and a Target launch set for that December, scale usually loosens controls. Did yours tighten instead?

Bobby: Growth made us stricter about evidence, not looser. FLO alone meant a short input list. Once URO and MENO added capsules, gummies and washes, suppliers and specs multiplied. We fixed the specs, kept approved growers and fermentation sites where we could, and held testing to each production run instead of switching to skip lot checks.

Brianna: Stores added paperwork. A Target launch brought barcodes, case packs, shelf life work and retail compliance files, all linked to the same lot code. The pledge did not change, formulas with research behind them that give felt benefit, covered by a 30 day risk free guarantee. That pledge fails if a unit bought in December differs from the unit assayed in August. So we put money into files and clear duties. To this day, our distinct and defined roles remain what keeps us working.

Brianna: My mother moved through menopause with thin support while you dealt with draining PMS and undiagnosed PCOS in that shared apartment. Which shelf gap did those parallel problems reveal?

Brianna: We lived side by side and noticed two voids together. My mother was in menopause with limited answers, and I was coping with crushing PMS and PCOS without a diagnosis. The market felt backward looking. You waited for bleeding or cramps, then coped hour by hour. I sought a plant based daily with ingredient research that I could use before symptoms peaked.

Bobby: Brianna walked me through FLO back in 2018. She brought lived experience and clear product judgment. I carried startup reps. We gave years to flavor trials, lab tests and consults with physicians and researchers until the FLO mix landed, the first gummy vitamin aimed at PMS. That routine became our rule. We would not sell on assertion alone. We required peer reviewed backing for inputs and a delivery form that people would repeat daily.

You have said your parents showed that ideas can become real objects, with a father operating his design practice and a mother holding inventor patents. How does that show up in your split of duties?

Brianna: My parents drilled into me that an idea can leave the sketchbook and become a thing. My dad operated his own interior design practice, and my mom held several patents as an inventor, so building felt ordinary at home. I am a former Disney Imagineer and I endured painful periods for years before I said I had had enough. While working in Los Angeles as an interior designer to well known clients, I saw PMS eat my calendar while the shelf offered nothing proactive for my pattern.

Bobby: I came in with entrepreneurship training and a working grasp of operations. A strong concept is only part of it, since we had to map how to make, price and sell those ideas at repeat. Even now, our clear separate roles explain most of our progress. When one of us brings ego to a call, the other flags it fast.

Brianna: Execution is most of the hard part in a startup. Obstacles have appeared throughout, and that friction is also what makes progress satisfying. Our largest win is clearly helping women feel steadier.

The URO Vaginal Probiotic Gummy uses a pink pineapple gummy base and the capsule pairs a probiotic with a multivitamin. What does a label reader actually get, and what do you mean by a studied strain?

Brianna: URO followed FLO to cover vaginal health. The Vaginal Probiotic plus Multivitamin Capsule joins a probiotic to a daily multivitamin base. The URO Vaginal Probiotic Gummy is our pink pineapple chew with a studied strain, shaped with OB/GYN input, and made without artificial flavors or dyes. By studied strain I mean the exact alphanumeric designation we hold on file, not the broader species.

Bobby: Living inputs demand chain of custody. We buy from a supplier that banks the strain and can show identity, viable count to expiry, and storage needs. Every inbound lot carries its certificate of analysis, and finished units get independent lab confirmation. The Medical Advisory Board, with OB/GYNs plus an ND focused on integrative womens health, signs off on formula and wording. We print what the panel lists and what ingredient research reports, and we keep disease treatment wording off the pack.

You state independent testing for purity and potency on each production run. Talk through the order from inbound powder to released lot.

Bobby: Review starts before dispatch. We qualify vendors to specs for identity, strength and caps for heavy metals and microbes. Inbound material lands with a vendor certificate tied to its lot code. Our contract site reviews the file, pulls samples, and checks fit to spec before the material may enter the room.

Brianna: Across encapsulation or gummy pouring, staff log batch sheets. Those sheets capture lots consumed, machines used, heat points, piece weights and checks mid run. Once the run ends, reserve units travel to an outside lab for purity and potency confirmation. Only compliant lots move to sale. A lot that misses spec never leaves.

Bobby: Shoppers see the compressed record in the Supplement Facts box and the other ingredients statement, with marks or lines where relevant. The long record sits in our batch archive. That is our reply to where did this originate, and what proves it. A lot code tied to a lab sheet.

We wanted peer reviewed backing for the ingredients in a form people would take daily.

Brianna Bitton and Bobby Bitton

FLO skipped tablets for a gummy that people would repeat across a cycle. What did that format demand in sourcing and process?

Brianna: A gummy must win counter space. When the chew is chalky or druglike, use falls off before one cycle ends. We ran many cycles to fix chew and taste while holding no artificial flavors or dyes, a rule we carried into URO. The matrix absorbs differently than a plain capsule. You balance gelling systems, acids for bite, and flavor that survives storage.

Bobby: On supply, each component is cleared by lot. Botanical inputs ship with an extract ratio and a vendor certificate, and we verify identity and strength to our spec. Gummies also force tight grip on water activity and piece weight spread, so each unit holds its target fill. The path ran longer than a tablet path, yet repeat use was the aim. A daily only helps when taken daily.

IQVIA ProVoice surveys of 300 OB-GYNs sit behind your OB-GYN recommended wording. What can that number show, and what can it not show?

Bobby: It is poll evidence, and we label it that way. In IQVIA ProVoice samples of n equals 300 OB/GYNs in the US, O Positiv is termed an OB-GYN recommended brand. That matches the stated dose guidance within that group. It never stands in for lot assays or ingredient trials, and it predicts nothing for one person. We hold those buckets apart.

Brianna: The Medical Advisory Board keeps our phrasing narrow. We build with OB/GYN guidance, we cite a studied strain only where we hold it, and we assay each production run. The poll is a single extra point beside the Supplement Facts box, the other ingredients statement, and the testing line. We aim for a legible shelf. Who guided the formula, which strain or extract sits inside, who assayed it, and which lot it traces to.

You can list strain codes and extract specs lot by lot, yet some upstream steps still pool through brokers or flavor firms. Where is the chain clearest now, and what would open it further?

Brianna: Our clearest ground is finished testing and formula inputs. We can point to strain code, extract spec, per run assay, and board review. Those live lot by lot in files. The blur sits above our direct vendors, at farms or fermenters that shift season to season.

Bobby: Full plot level tracing would need farm kept lots held apart through drying and extraction with no pooling, plus open posting of lot certificates. That fits some herbs and fits flavors, gummy matrices and mixed source vitamins poorly. The fix is contracts that keep farm identity intact through dry and extract stages, with a pack QR that ties a finished lot to its papers. We push that way where supply permits, and we mark plainly where a step stays pooled rather than single source.

Closing note from the desk

The throughline here is role split as quality control. Brianna held the use case and the demand for a daily that people keep, Bobby held specs, labs and growth math, and both stayed inside wording that files can back.

O Positiv framed womens health as a core shelf, not a side shelf, from first period to long past last, using daily chews and capsules with per lot outside testing. Farm level mapping is still partial, a limit the founders state openly. For Half Life readers the next useful disclosure is simple, milligrams beside trial milligrams, strain code beside study strain, and lot paper on request.

Product spotlight

The label lists Vaginal Probiotic + Multivitamin Capsule at 36.99 dollars. A daily capsule joining a vaginal probiotic to a multivitamin mix. The pack lists a studied strain and OB/GYN input. Use each day per pack direction and review Supplement Facts with other ingredients for the full list.

Vaginal Probiotic Gummy, 28.99 dollars. A pink pineapple chew for daily vaginal health, built around a studied strain without artificial flavors or dyes. The chew format aids steady use. Use each day per direction and confirm lot facts and Supplement Facts on the pack.